


We've got tonight (who needs tomorrow)

by LostInFiction13



Category: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens
Genre: Beebody lives in my heart rent free, F/F, Idk what happened here, Modern AU, Party like it's a covidfree 2021, but it wasn't supposed to be, eeeeee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:20:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29225358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostInFiction13/pseuds/LostInFiction13
Summary: It's party time! On Valentine's Day because Hazel's a hopeless romantic and Daisy's secretly a sap.written for the MMU femslash bingo: Fake Dating
Relationships: Katherine "Kitty" Freebody/Rebecca "Beanie" Martineau
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: Murder Most Unladylike Events





	We've got tonight (who needs tomorrow)

**Author's Note:**

> I did not realise this was going to be this long, sorry.
> 
> Also for some reason it's technically also a modern au because I literally couldn't think how to incorporate it into 1930s. 
> 
> I seem to have a need in modern aus to have a "difference in power/popularity" so to speak so... 
> 
> Anyways I hope you like it!!

"Beanbag, I need a favour." Kitty called up the stairs. I heard her throw her coat onto the floor and then the rythmic thud as she climbed the stairs. I scrambled and pulled the earphones out of my ears, making sure to pause my audiobook as Kitty entered her bedroom.

I've been staying here for the last week or so whilst mum's in the hospital again. I don't mind, I like the Freebody's house. On this particular day, Kitty had had some school council meeting and I was sat on her bed, waiting for her to come home. Binny was next door, in her room. I don't know what she was doing, but the floor kept bouncing. I think she may have been jumping on her bed. I don't blame her- the Freebody's mattresses are very springy. I looked at Kitty imploringly, waiting until she'd thrown her school bag across the room (it crumpled in a heap next to the radiator) and pulled off her tie.

She sat down on her bed, opposite me, before leaning forward. Taking my hands in her own, she sighed. "Daisy Wells is having a party."

I merely stared at her. Daisy used to be a very close friend of ours, until we reached the upper years of high school. She's the type of person who could be just like us, or more specifically, me, at the bottom of the Deepdean food chain. But she isn't because she oozes confidence and is on nearly every sports team, which means she's popular. And hosts parties everytime her parents are out of town. Which is actually very often. Apparently my silence was not welcome, because Kitty looked up, looking affronted.

"Baked Beans!" She said but I knew she wasn't really mad because she only ever calls me that when she thinks she's being funny. Which, like Daisy's parties, is quite regular. "Daisy Wells is having a party." She said again, with more emphasis.

"I- so?" I asked. I had a maths exam last period and my head was still reeling. I really couldn't be bothered trying to decipher whatever had specifically excited Kitty about this party.

"We. Are invited." She smirked at me, jumping off her bed and onto my small air bed with so much force I was afraid it was going to pop. Not that that would matter, I haven't slept in it since I arrived. When we were younger, and we had sleepovers, me and Kitty would share the bed. I don't know why, it was just something we did. And nothings changed. Well, we're both a bit big now to fit in Kitty's narrow bed but tradition is tradition and we manage.

When I still didn't give an adequate response, Kitty sighed, pulling me off the bed and hurrying out of her bedroom door. It was a Friday night, which means film night for the Freebody's. Something about the three F's lining up or something.

"Come onnn, Beanie Boo." She whined, pulling a 2l bottle of lemonade out of the fridge. "Come with me, pleassse?" She pouted and batted her eyelashes at me so, of course, I couldn't refuse.

"Fine." I huffed. Usually, I try to avoid parties, particularly ones at the Wellses. It's not that I don't like her, I actually think she's very lovely- a bit blunt, but not intentionally rude, not like some of the others she's friends with. It's just that they, the parties I mean, tend to be loud and filled with people I don't know. Kitty has student council, but other than band practice once a week, most of my free time is spent on studying or with my mum.

"Yay!" Kitty squealed and clapped her hands, jumping on the spot in excitement. "it's next Friday."

My popcorn slipped out of my mouth, landing on my foot. I picked it up hurriedly, hoping Kitty didn't notice my reaction. Who am I kidding? Of course she did. It's Kitty; she notices everything.

"That is okay isn't it?"

I nodded, picking up the lemonade and followed her back upstairs. It was a shame to have to miss Film Friday's, but they were increasingly becoming a less of a Freebody Family thing and more of a Freebody Family Member thing. As evidenced by the fact that I was sat, or rather, half laid half sat on Kitty's bed, my head resting against her shoulder as we watched The Breakfast Club. As we had only watched it last week, (Kitty had forgotten to switch DVDs before we sat down and hadn't wanted to get up again) and at least 15 times before that, we were more only half watching, occasionally joining in to mouth along to the scenes. Yes, we're those people, what about it?

We were about a quarter way through when Kitty pressed the pause button. The resulting pose of the characters was... Interesting to say the least but I ignored it, turning my head to look up at Kitty. She never EVER pauses, unless it's an emergency. Like the pizza has arrived and it's the objectively cute boy delivering, or if we've run out of popcorn. As we (surprisingly) had half a bowl of popcorn left, and had yet to decide what toppings to get on the pizza (we were considering just getting everything), I was a little confused.

"Jelly Beans," Kitty ran a hand through her hair, pushing it out of her face. She comes up with a new nickname for me nearly every week, and uses them all until she gets bored or forgets them. Why she can't just call me Beanie, as that is also technically a nickname, I don't know. But it's actually quite fun to see how imaginative she can get, so I don't complain.

"Mhm?"

"Remember when I said I had a favour to ask?"

I nodded. After all, it wasn't that long ago was it?

"Well, I didn't ask it of you. Or at least, not fully."

My eyebrows knitted together as I tried to figure out what Kitty meant this time. I do wish she'd stop beating about the bush. It makes it awfully difficult to get the full gist of what she means. Plus, 'beating about the bush' is such a strange phrase. Like, surely beating AROUND the bush gets more results than just beating your way through it? You might get stuck halfway through, or get seriously injured, or both. Besides, why would you want to hit a bush? That seems awfully cruel to me. Sorry, I'm going off on a tangent. Back to the story.

"I need you to come with me."

"I- I am?" Instinctively, I pressed the back of my hand against Kitty's forehead, checking her temperature. A bit on the warm side, but that could have been due to the the 50 or so blankets we were huddled under.

"No Beans, I mean... with with me." She paused, biting her lip before adding. "Like... as my date."

My cheeks flushed and as clichéd as it may sound, I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest it was drumming so hard. Just flop out of my body and land on Kitty's bed. What a strange mental image.

Oh, there's probably another thing I should mention about me and Kitty. I may or may not be completely and utterly in love with her. Which is stupid, because I'm basically a child and have so many more people to meet and love and, perhaps more importantly (as far as I know) I'm not gay.

"I know, I know. Me neither!"

Oops, it looked like I had said that last little bit out loud.

"But it's on Valentine's day, we can't go alone." Kitty continued. "We're already 'at the bottom of the power pyramid' as you say, imagine how it'll look when we both show up to a Valentine's Day party with no date!"

I have to admit, I couldn't argue with her logic. "What about that boy, what's his name... James?" The words came out as a shout and I clamped my hand over my mouth. That was not supposed to be that loud. Kitty merely raised her eyebrow at me.

"I know you mean Hugo and no, I'm not taking him. Don't be ridiculous Beans, I'm not taking Cute Delivery Boy to Daisy Wells's party on our first official date. It'll end in utter chaos. Besides, that doesn't solve who you'll go with. Pleaseee?"

I ran my fingers across the fluffy sleeve of my jumper. It's a pink one and reminds me of candyfloss whenever I wear it. "Okay, fine." I huffed, more to shut Kitty up so we could go back to watching The Breakfast Club.

It started up again and we settled back into our normal Friday routine, until I paused it 5 minutes later. Kitty, I could tell, was half asleep- her breathing had become much slower and rythmic.

"Kitty?"

"Mhm?"

Taking that as a response to continue, I sat up. "Why's Daisy having a party on Valentine's Day anyway? I thought she didn't believe in love."

Kitty opened her eyes, searching my face. "That was before, Beanbag, keep up."

"Before what?" I don't really keep up with school gossip; that's more Kitty's thing. She usually ends up telling me anyway.

"Rebecca Martineau, are you actually being serious?"

I nodded. Kitty rolled her eyes, a small smile gracing her lips. "Before Amina, you numpty. And that friend of hers, Hazel whats-her-face, probably had something to do with it too. I don't think I've ever met someone as much as a hopeless romantic."

Amina El Maghrabi arrived at school at the beginning of the year, all airs and graces. I've never really spoken to her because, despite being new to the school, she rose straight to the top, sucked into the 'inner circle' of Daisy's followers. Apparently she's one of the best netball players the school's ever seen. I wouldn't know, I don't watch nor play (obviously) any sports. I suppose it makes sense, her and Daisy.

Unlike Amina, I know Hazel better. She tutored me last year, and if it wasn't for her and Daisy being best friends, she'd probably be at the bottom of the pyramid with us. She doesn't play sports; she said herself that she has as 'much grace as an elephant'. I actually think elephant's are marvellous creatures; they have the most amazing memory and can, contrary to popular belief, run very fast. Kitty was right though, Hazel is a hopeless romantic. Not the party type though, so I doubted she would have arranged a Valentine's Day anything, that consisted of more than herself and Alexander, an American boy who goes to the nearby boys school, Weston's.

I made a non committal noise of agreement and reached for the TV remote again but Kitty powered on regardless.

"Of course, it will only be a night and I doubt anyone will really notice us, but at least it'll show Temple that we're not loners."

Lavinia Temple is in band with me and for some reason, Kitty has a love/hate relationship with her. Part of me thinks she's jealous- Lavinia is also on the tennis team (yes, we have a lot of clubs at Deepdean) so is objectively popular. Except Lavinia doesn't seem to particularly care. It drives Kitty crackers. I sighed and turned the film back on.

The week seemed to pass like lightning and at snails pace at the same time. On Wednesday, I was waiting for Kitty outside, by the tree. Daisy walked up, flanked by Hazel and Clementine Delacroix, another girl in our year who Kitty calls 'one of Daisy's cronies'. Daisy and Clementine were dressed in their sports kits, fresh from netball practice, with Hazel... Well I'm not entirely sure what Hazel was doing.

"Rebecca." Daisy said in form of greeting. There was no unkindness in her voice, but the formality of it almost broke my heart. No one's called me Rebecca (unless in a joking way like Kitty, or if I'm in trouble) in years. Even the teachers have started calling me Beanie. I smiled softly, trying not to think about the last time Daisy, Hazel, Kitty and I were gathered around this tree.

It had been the last day of year 8, after the end of year exams. We were going through a heatwave, and it was almost unbearable to be outside, nevermind in the gym, sat doing papers. So we were grabbing the last little bit of shade, under the tree, whilst we could. I think if you look carefully, you can still see our initials scratched into the bark with Daisy's compass, Hazel's remarks of "Daisyy that's vandalism" going unnoticed.

We'd come back in year 9, and Daisy had joined a bunch of sports teams, Hazel had bagged a place on the school newspaper and suddenly the initials on the tree where just random letters. A forgotten memory.

Three years later, we were finally united except Kitty had morphed into Clementine and I wasbeing called my full name. I focused instead on the fact that Daisy had at least remembered my name, and not called me Rachel or something.

"Are you coming to my party?

The question for some reason, made me nervous. Or perhaps it was Daisy's face. She didn't look very happy. However, Kitty has been telling me for ages to stand up for myself so I stood my ground. "Yes."

Daisy's face split into a wide grin, "Yay! I can't wait to see you there." The words sounded fake, but the tone seemed genuine. Daisy never was one for emotional exchanges. Seemingly, nothing much has changed.

"What did they want?" Kitty asked, coming up behind me as Daisy, Hazel and Clementine walked away. I watched as they met Amina and a blond haired boy, who must have been Alexander, at the gates before answering.

"Just to see if we were going to the party." I shrugged. I tucked my arm into Kitty's as we followed Daisy out of the gate, resting my head on her shoulder. If this was all we had to do at the party, I thought, then it will be a piece of cake.

"What did you say?"

"Yes?" I bit back the panic that started to swell inside me. "We are still going aren't we?" I asked Kitty nervously as she unravelled her headphones, fiddling with a knot that had formed about halfway down. She always manages to get them into a right state; I cannot begin to fathom how.

"Obviously. Apparently Binny is also invited; she just texted me, so we're to be each other's alibis for the night. We'll just tell mum we're going to the cinema or something."

I breathed out half a breath of relief. I say half because Daisy Wells is not someone you want to lie too, so I'm glad we dodged that bullet, but at the same time, neither is Mrs Freebody. I was about to ask Kitty how Binny had managed to score an invite when a) she's a year younger and b) basically the entire school finds her annoying, but she's on the gymnastics team (see I told you we had a lot of sport teams) so I guess that means an automatic invite. Oh to be popular.

By the time Friday rolled around, I was panicking. First of all, I had nothing to wear and second of all, how was I supposed to fake date Kitty when neither of us are gay. Okay, well I think I might be, but Kitty isn't. I don't think. I had a point though- how were we supposed to look realistically in love.

"C'mon Beanbag, you need to get dressed before Binny shouts at us." Kitty said and threw my pink, fuzzy jumper at me as she came back into the bedroom. Having just come out of the shower, her hair was dripping down her faded t-shirt that I'm pretty sure she stole of her dad. Unless Kitty has a secret love for heavy metal bands that I've never known about.

"I can't wear that, I'll look like a child." I told her, throwing it back. Surprisingly, the shot took a hit, straight to Kitty's face. Whoops.

Kitty sighed, squeezing some excess water out of her hair and sliding on her slippers. Walking over to her walk-in wardrobe she somehow managed to convince her parents to buy (it takes up half the room, but is a very good place to hide when you want to be alone in the seemingly constant chaos of the Freebody house). I heard her banging around, clearly searching for something, but didn't bother going to help. Instead, I sat down, using my phone as a mirror and tried to work out how much makeup would be deemed as socially acceptable. Yet another reason I tend to avoid such gatherings.

I decided on something 'simple yet effective' as Kitty likes to call it; dark mascara and paler undertones for everything else. It works better on her, always has done, but I left it for the night.

Kitty had definitely raided her parents clothes at some point, because the outfit she held out to me looked as though it had come straight from a 1980s dry cleaners. I stared at her in bewilderment for a second, before begrudgingly putting it on. Kitty, on the other hand, was wearing her old prom dress. (Because for some reason we had a dance every year- I have no idea why.)

"No, no no no. You are not wearing that." I said firmly, glancing at her through the mirror on the wardrobe door.

The look I received back was one of abject horror, sprinkled with a little disappointment and a similar look to someone who has trained for the Olympics their entire life, only to come in second place when it really mattered.

"Why not?"

I ignored the slight pout she sent my way and walked into the wardrobe, pulling out some shorts and a t-shirt. I handed it her as she sighed, as dramatically as she could.

"Because it's a Daisy Wells Party, not a ball. Now put these on and let's go."

It felt strange to be the one in charge for once, but Kitty obliged and half an hour later we were heading to the Wellses, Binny walking a few feet in front of us, acting as if she wasn't with us.

By the time we arrived, there were already people milling around. I slipped my hand into Kitty's as we neared the door, suddenly incredibly nervous. She squeezed it gently before stepping inside.

We were greeted by a blond haired boy, with a smile that was oddly nostalgic. Like smelling a specific cooking biscuit and being reminded of your first day of high school. He was taller than when I'd last seem him, his face seemingly more mature, but the family resemblance was still there.

"Hello Bertie." I said quietly. Beside me, Kitty remained silent. I'm still not sure if she actually recognised him or not.

"Hello." He paused, eyeing our conjoined hands. I bit my lip and held Kitty's hand tighter. I don't know why why I was so scared- it's not like it's illegal to hold hands, or fake date your best friend. "Beanie isn't it?"

I nodded, slightly surprised he had remembered me. Even when we were still pretty close, I had only come to Daisy's house a handful of times, usually for school work. Bertie had generally ignored us, walking around the wide corridors of the house (yes, it's that big) strumming his guitar, or laughing obnoxiously loud at something his friend Stephen had said. I couldn't see the ginger boy anywhere, and I must say, I was relieved. Stephen did and probably always will, give me bad vibes.

"Upstairs is out of bounds, mainly because we've shoved all our mess up there, but you can go anywhere else. If anything gets broken, I was never here." Bertie said, grabbing a denim jacket and disappearing out of the door we had just come through. He shouted for a boy, Harold, I think he said, and someone nudged past us to join him. He looked rather like Alexander's friend. At least, I presume they're friends, they're always together.

Kitty tugged at my arm, Binny already having disappeared into the growing crowd. She had been right; everyone here seemed to be with someone. The decorations had Hazel written all over them (not literally of course, that would be a little strange) but it was clear who did what. Unless Daisy Wells was secretly a sap at heart.

Kitty dragged me through to the kitchen, which seemed to be the heart of everything. Which meant the entire netball team were there. There was some bottles of champagne on the worktop (if that doesn't tell you what sort of family the Wells are, I don't know what will.) but no one actually appeared to be drinking anything. Maybe that was for later.

Hazel seemed much more at home here, laughing loudly from her place on the draining board, Daisy sat next to her. I'm still not sure what they were laughing about, but I hope it wasn't us. It may have been however, because as soon as they saw us lurking in the corner, their little "squad" shut up. Daisy jumped off her spot with as much grace as a cat (they are graceful, right) and tapped her way over to us, a smile plastered on her face. It wasn't mean as such, but it wasn't massively friendly either. Just an indifferent smile if such a thing exists.

"Hello you two." The smile almost seemed genuine, but I must have been imagining it. Why would Daisy Wells be happy we had come to her silly Valentine party. "Are you here alone, or did you bring someone. The more the merrier you know."

I felt Kitty stiffen beside me. She never likes the insinuation that just because we aren't the most people encased in the walls of Deepdean, we aren't likeable. She says the popularity poisons people and in actual fact the more 'friends' you have the more alone you are. At first I thought she was just jealous, but she may be right. I also think that's why she gets on with Hazel from time to time but not Daisy; Hazel hasn't 'forgotten her roots.'

'We came together.' The words were out of my mouth before I really realise. A flash of confusion crossed Daisy's face, and to be completely honest, I'm not really surprised. There was a lack of conviction in my voice, and me and Kitty (other than our hands clasped together) were not exactly acting very "couple like". Not like some people in the room anyway.

Kitty smiled, and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. I ignored the tingles and merely smiled. Daisy's face split into a smile, and grabbed a bottle of champagne from the side (I learnt later that Bertie had replaced the contents with lemonade- he might not care if his sister had a huge party, but underage drinking was a no go).

"Come and join us. As I said, the more the merrier. And Daisy Wells is never wrong." She giggled and walked back over to Amina. I stared at Kitty in utter astonishment. She merely shrugged but dragged me further into the kitchen anyway. I think Kitty's always felt rather left behind when our little shrimp club split, no matter how hard she tried to deny it. Who would have guessed that dating, or pretending to I suppose it really is, would solve all the world's problems. Well... mostly all. In fact, scrap that.  
Who knew that dating, even for only one night, would make the world a brighter place again.

What a bad end to my little recollection, I'm sorry. But it's time for yet another Freebody Friday Film night, so this is in fact, the end.

**Author's Note:**

> I can not do endings and I only proofread once oops


End file.
